It used to be cold enough in winter for the entire river to freeze over in London
An illustration of the Great Frost of 1814 (Image: English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
While winters in London can still be sometimes very chilly, hundreds of years ago they were far colder than they are nowadays – so cold in fact the entire River Thames could freeze over. Up until the 1800s it was cold enough during the winter months for the entire River Thames to freeze over fairly regularly.
This happened regularly enough, with 24 occasions recorded between 1400 and 1831, that festivals on the ice became a regular celebration – coming to be known as ‘Frost Fairs’. What allowed the Thames to freeze during these years was the lack of solid banks like we see today, with the wider and shallower river flowing more slowly.
On top of this, when conditions got icy, big blocks of frozen water could dam up the river as they got trapped between the large and narrow piers of old London Bridge at low tide making it much easier for the stretch directly up stream from the bridge to freeze over.
The first fairs date back to 695AD but no-one coined ‘Frost Fair’ until 1608, when barbers, grocers and other artisans all took to the ice in tents warmed by fires to peddle their wares. Game playing would also become common at Frost Fairs, with football, bowling, and gambling all taking place.
The best known fair came in the winter of 1683 and 1684, when activities as outlandish as horse and coach racing, bull baiting, and fox hunting were attempted. Often the fairs were over almost as soon as they’d begun, with the ice melting fairly rapidly after forming, and after numerous fairs through the 1700s the very last one took place in 1814 when the most notable feat was an elephant being led across the river below Blackfriars.
After this, though, the fairs ceased thanks to a warming climate and the removal of the old London Bridge’s wide piers, allowing the river to flow faster and avoid freezing. As a result the Thames in London has never fully frozen since, although occasionally the river does still freeze further upstream, with photos of this included in the collection below to illustrate how the frost fairs may have appeared.
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A frost fair on the River Thames in the City of London, ‘sketched on the spot’. People warm themselves round a brazier, and temporary taverns and hotels have been set up. In the distance are St Paul’s Cathedral, the Monument, and the Tower of London, with the masts of ships frozen in the ice(Image: The Print Collector/Heritage Images via Getty Images)1 of 7
‘Frost Fair on the Thames’, 1683-4(Image: Print Collector/Getty Images)2 of 7
An illustration of the Great Frost of 1814(Image: English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)3 of 7
View of a frost fair on the River Thames in 1814, copperplate and letterpress printers can be seen at work on the ice and in the foreground a hot mutton pie seller is approached by two customers(Image: Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
‘A Frost Fair on the Thames at Temple Stairs’, c1684. This fair was exceptional in that it lasted from December 1683 until February 1684(Image: Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images)5 of 7
River Thames frozen near Oxford 1895. A crowd of people and horse-drawn carriages show what Frost Fairs may have looked like(Image: English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)6 of 7
Policemen on ice skates on the frozen River Thames – undated, probably 1900(Image: Philipp Kester/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
